Silver service from dog warden Anne

Appointed as Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council’s first full-time dog warden in 1989, Anne McDonald is this year marking 25 years of picking up and preventing strays from roaming the streets of the borough

From the days of dried white dog poo and pets running loose on the streets to 21st century microchipping and responsible dog ownership education, the borough council’s dog warden Anne McDonald has seen it all.

Appointed as Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council’s first full-time dog warden in 1989, Mrs McDonald is this year marking 25 years of picking up and preventing strays from roaming the streets of the borough.

Last year alone the one-woman dog control and complaints service picked up 185 stray dogs, investigated 189 complaints about barking dogs, gave 12 talks on responsible dog owership and drove 10,514 miles around Hinckley and Bosworth to carry out her work.

It means that, during her quarter century of service, she has probably saved more than 4,600 strays, given 300 talks, investigated more than 4,700 complaints and travelled more than 262,000 miles as part of her job.

And the 53-year-old former hosiery worker who answered an ad in The Hinckley Times to get the job of her dreams shows no sign of tiring.

“I love it. I have been really lucky. It is a job I really do enjoy. I love the dogs and I like meeting people.

“Every day is different. Who knows what’s going to happen?”

When Anne took the job, dog wardens were a relatively new concept.

Before her appointment, strays around Hinckley and Bosworth were picked from the streets by two pest control officers.

She recalled: “It was totally different then.

“Stray dogs were a big issue. They used to be running round in packs.

“We called them latchkey dogs.

“As a child my dog used to go to my Grandad’s house down the road. It was just something that was always done.

“Dogs just ran around and did what they wanted to do - then I appeared on the scene.”

Not everyone welcomed her, especially those obliged to pay a fee, as they still are, to reclaim a pet that had been found wandering the streets.

These days, she says, people are more responsible.

“I’m currently picking up 250 to 300 dogs per year. When I started it was more like 500.

“We are still picking up dogs that aren’t microchipped but it’s much more common that they are chipped now and it’s something we promote.”

In 2016 microchipping a pet dog will become a legal requirement.

Pooches that remain unclaimed are taken to Leicester Animal Aid’s rescue centre at Huncote where they are rehabilitated and cared for until they can be rehomed.

Mrs McDonald said: “LAA are just brilliant. Their rehoming work is fantastic.

“We are so lucky that we are not an authority that has to work on the basis that after seven days, if a dog is not claimed, it is put to sleep.

“Some local authorities still have to do that.”

Borough veterinary surgeries also do their bit to help by looking after strays if they can before the dog warden can get to them.

“It’s a really big team effort.”

That team effort helped the borough council to win a golden footprint award from the RSPCA in 2012 and 2013 in recognition of its animal welfare and stray prevention work.

On the prevention front, Mrs McDonald is helped by one of her own four dogs, Mikey the seven-year-old pug, who joins her on school visits and is always popular with pupils.

She rehomed Mikey’s mum and grandma, pugs Minnie, aged nine, and Lucy, 11, through East Midlands Dog Resue, when Minnie was expecting Mikey.